Monday 11/21/11 Journal 6

My overall field experience was very good as far as being in the classroom and observing the Ms. Hinz handle her classes. I do think that the expectations for the students and for the teachers need to be a little more clear. I observed this mostly because I had to explain almost everything in the packet I had given to my cooperating teacher and she had next to no knowledge of the expectations that a level 2 student is suppose to complete during their time with her.

I learned a lot about classroom management with Ms. Hinz. She had different techniques for her P.E. hours in 9th grade as well as her 10th grade Health classes. I noticed right away that she was very harsh with her 9th graders and I wasn't quite sure how to act around her for the first day or so until I saw her in her 10th grade health class where she was very fun and had a good time with the students. After seeing the difference in the classroom maturity levels in between 9th and 10th grade I understood more how she acted in different settings. Observing this helped me know how to approach her a little more easily then before.

Ms. Hinz was very accommodating by letting me observe her Health class as well as her P.E. class in order for me to be able to fulfill my hours. She provided excellent feedback after each of my lessons and also pointed out how I had improved from the previous times and where I could use some improvement. The main area she said I could improve on is my planning out exactly what I want done each day aside from the lesson plan. She showed me how she organizes her days specifically for each class and how you have to be able to evolve for each of the different classroom's needs. I learned a lot from Ms. Hinz's classes and I hope to use her critiques to prepare myself for my next field experience.

Although I did learn a lot from the experience and I think it is important, I also think that 30 hours was a lot to ask in less than a month when some students have jobs and a full load of credits. It was very difficult having to schedule times that would work for both myself and Ms. Hinz even with the hour and a half given off of class M,W,F. Having to do the hours plus the assignments has proved to be a very big challenge in keeping up with other classes come the end of the semester and finals week.